Pac is my favorite fighter, but I can say that it's a certainty that Pac would lose. Only question is does Duran get the stoppage. Probably not because Pac was never dropped in his prime, hell he was hardly even stunned in his prime. But hes never fought Duran either. Pacquiao 2 pre prime malnourishment KOs and his post prime KTFO6 actually cause many to underrate a prime Pacs chin. A prime Pac had a legitimate iron chin. Not just a good one, but a genuinely iron chin.
Looks like it's a Hearns v Mayweather final at the moment, George. Hears is so far ahead he's a definite, the question is whether anyone can catch Mayweather. Pacquiao is the most likely to catch up, i reckon. P.S I'd like to see a pre-Ali heavyweight series, you know, featuring all those smaller guys mentioned in the heavyweight thread. If you wanted to do it I think your knowlege would make it a more nuanced group. If you don't want to, who do you think should be on it, mate?
Yeah, makes me feel a little sick that the consensus is Mayweather > Gavilan, but I knew that'd be the case when I made the thread. In a proper welterweight tournament with the best welters ever (IMO), Pac, Floyd, Tito or DLH would make it on there. For me, the musts for a pre-Ali HW list are: Louis, Marciano, Liston, Dempsey and Johnson. After that, Walcott, Charles, Jeffries, Patterson and Schmeling could all go on there.
I was about to say "Great thread idea, Squire Crowcroft! " before clicking it open, but egads - you couldn't be arsed to even bracket them up, ya lazy git?! Sexy lineup though. Really can't make too many bad (nor wildly imbalanced) matches there.
Brackets, for anyone who wants them: Jose Napoles -------> Manny Pacquiao ------> Semi's-----> Floyd Mayweather -----> Felix Trinidad -----> Tommy Hearns -----> Oscar De La Hoya -----> Semi's-----> Kid Gavilan -----> Roberto Duran ----->
Very well, I've heckled you enough, least I can do is color inside the lines. Just the quarters, for now: Much as I respect Pac's accomplishments, I'm not of the mind that he is terribly successful running the ATG welterweight gauntlet. Too many bad stylistic match-ups for him, and while it was the division where he peaked in fame, it was by quite a considerable margin not his most effective weight class. I know, it was a great run, 13-2 with a slew of good to excellent wins and the only defeats to his generational foil blocking him from the #1 p4p spot, and then a one-hitter from a rival he already had a positive record against. Nothing to sniff at. It wasn't all smoke and mirrors - but it was carefully ministrated with the right opponents suffering the right foibles at the right time, and Pac from lightweight down was his true best destructive buzzsaw self. I'm typically generous to Nápoles in fantasy match-ups based more on form than deed, and here again I have to roll with the best of Butter on film surpassing the best of Ang Pambansang Kamao that we've seen at 147. The only thing preventing me from picking Mantequilla by stoppage is that his right hand, while very good, was never that of a JMM. His left is his money hand, with both jab & hook - and that isn't the hand by which you time a somnoloescent counter punch on a bunny-hopping southpaw. Mantequilla by decision (although, sidebar: if this were at lightweight, I'd go with Pac-Man). PBF UD Tito. Not much to say here - it has been discussed to death, and seems a fairly straightforward and uncontroversial outcome to pick. The most dishonest and extremest of his detractors might want to believe there's a chance of Floyd being kayoed here, but there really isn't. DLH managed to smartly outbox Trinidad for several rounds, and the only defense-oriented elite Trinidad ever beat was a shot Pea. If we're talking about tall, rangy, HOF welters, I've always thought Vernon Forrest is the far more dangerous proposition for Mayweather. Another one that wouldn't be quite a humiliating one-sided drubbing, but also is very easy to predict (and difficult to play devil's advocate for anything else). Hearns is without question out-jabbing DLH, and he's eventually going to catch him with the big 1-2 kibosh. Hearns by TKO somewhere in the 8th-11th range, after Oscar takes a long, brave, at times hard-to-watch stand and even bags a couple of rounds on sheer grit and some whopper combinations scored on the inviting target of that long & lean torso. This one, at last, is a real damn near 50-50 pick 'em. I think Manos di Piedra would find himself missing far more than he's used to, and growing frustrated, and having a fire lit under his ass leading to a surge for a few rounds, maybe finding and hurting the Cuban some, but ultimately he would find his every adjustment itself adjusted to, and find his efforts dashed and sandcastle kicked over late. Gun to my head, Gavilán outpoints Durán ...just.
